GUYANA has overcome the period of ramblings from the former APNU+AFC administration that job creation was not a part of their role. For context, it should be recalled that tens of thousands of Guyanese jobs were lost under the David Granger APNU+AFC administration, a national disaster that the PPP/C government is still working to fix.

Through the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency of the Labour Ministry alone, more than 6,000 Guyanese have benefitted from the agency’s work since the PPP/C government was elected to office two years ago.

Regrettably, the PPP/C’s progress, as recorded in history, in this regard will be measured not only on the genuine measures employed now to create economic prosperity among Guyanese but also on the point of how progress will be first made against how the government party’s measures filled a significant depression created by the APNU+AFC.

The coalition’s unrealistic plans resulted in remarkably bad economic management through failing to consider the real impact of their lofty ideas for the population, especially young people.

Today, the government’s recruitment agency has seen a surplus in applications through a modernised website application process which is no doubt a spill-off of the modernisation demands created from the COVID-19 pandemic. The attendance at the government’s National Job Fair on Monday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Liliendaal, was noteworthy; Young people are interested and eager.

Job fairs hosted by private companies have similarly seen large turn-outs. There are some who may not have been connecting the dots, but a few things must be put into context. Firstly, the government’s plan is to ensure more Guyanese are gainfully employed, and, secondly, the government, through the Ministry of Labour, has accepted its responsibility to facilitate the connection between recruiters and jobseekers, and also to ensure reasonable working conditions.

President, Dr. Irfaan Ali has been leading the way. The Head of State and his Cabinet of Ministers continue to visit communities across Guyana, including low-income communities with long histories of joblessness and interpersonal violence, to plan with them for a more prosperous future. In all of those engagements, the President has addressed the skilled labour gap that exists.

With government investing more than $96 billion in infrastructure to support economic growth and community development for 2022, coupled with the demands of the aggressive housing programme, there is a need for skilled labour that must be filled.

President Ali has used the opportunity of community engagements to invite young people to be part of government-supported trainings so that the requisite skills could be developed where lacking, and eventually those young people could position themselves squarely to benefit from that massive infrastructure budget.

The reality is that opportunities are abound for Guyanese at home, and the government recognises its role as the link between the people and these opportunities. None of this is by-the-way. Those opportunities are direct results of the PPP/C government’s focused economic planning, investor partnerships, public investment, and overall improved business environment of Guyana after 2020. Those paying attention may also have seen a number of new major entries to Guyana’s business landscape with a few more expected to come onboard in coming years.

Additionally, increased trade facilitation through improved relations with major trade partners, including the United States, Canada, China, the United Kingdom, the European Union etc…, will, in the long run, create further opportunities for foreign investors who are interested in Guyana. In short, more jobs.

At Monday’s job fair, exhibitors represented both the oil and non-oil sectors of the economy—a reflection of President Ali’s thrust to ensure that all sectors of the economy are built and operating at full capacity, so that there is no heavy reliance on the sure economic benefit which comes from oil, a national resource, which will eventually run out. Guyanese undoubtedly stand to gain from these intentional government-facilitated interventions, but they have to lean in.